anonemouse

I'm living in KY right now, going to grad school, but I usually live in middle TN. I've gone on a few consultations and I've finally chosen a surgeon. I had consultations with Dr. Lois Wagstrom, Dr. Melinda Haws, and Dr. Caroline Chester in Nashville. I chose Dr. Chester, but Dr. Wagstrom was a close second. I will hopefully be having a tummy tuck and breast lift in mid-August. I originally wanted it to be earlier in the summer, but Dr. Chester will be out of town for several weeks this summer, and I want to be at goal before I have surgery. Here are their websites: Dr. Lois Wagstrom: www.loiswagstom.com Dr. Melinda Haws: The Plastic Surgery Center of Nashville - Tennessee Cosmetic Surgery Dr. Caroline Chester: Nashville Tennessee Plastic Surgery

Ditto. When I was in plus sizes, I could NEVER shop at Lane Bryant for anything other than a plain T-shirt, just because their clothes are built for tall, long-limbed people, even the shirts. And honestly, I could find similar T-shirts for cheaper elsewhere. None of their pants ever worked for me, and I'm 5'3", just barely petite. LB's petites were always at least 4" too long for me. And really, the clothes that I did buy there were pretty crappy quality, or at least no better than what was available at other, less expensive stores. Why buy a $25 T-shirt at Lane Bryant when I could buy a $10 T-shirt at Wal-Mart or Target that was just as high quality. I've had extremely good luck with both of those stores, at least with their basic T-shirts. I've still got wearable T-shirts (now too big) from both stores in my closet that are at least 2 years old, and I'd wear them at least 1-2 times a week. Heck, even JCPenney or Belk are better than LB, IMO. Both have decent plus-size departments that were much more in line with my tastes and my purse than LB.

Ugh, I HATE group work. I mean, really, REALLY despise it. I always get stuck doing more than my fair share and trying not to piss everyone off by telling them that the work that they're doing is not up to my standard. That's why I usually volunteer to proof the shit before it gets turned in. It's nicer than telling my fellow group members, "I'm sorry, your work is crap, so I need to fix it before I stick my name on it." :biggrin:

I have discovered that I LIKE to shop for clothes AND that there's lots and lots of pretty clothes that I can actually fit into now. Sucks for my back account and credit cards, let me tell you! And the shoes! Apparently, I've gone down at least a half size, maybe more. I can actually find heels and pretty sandals that I like and that I can wear. The only thing that's holding me back from going crazy in Macy's right now is that I'm not finished losing weight. I don't want to completely restock my wardrobe only to turn around and do it again.

I use Sona MedSpa. I've had 3 of the 5 treatments that I've paid for, and it's worked like a dream so far. I'm even hoping that I won't have to use all 5 treatments.

Sorry, Julie, I've been out of town and away from internet for the last several days. My surgeon normally doesn't require her patients to stay overnight, but she wants me to stay the first night because I'll be a couple of hours away from the hospital when I leave. That cost is included in my quote. Both of the other two surgeons I looked into required their patients to stay, I think.

Pretty much. I just feel really comfortable with her. The first surgeon I saw had really good photos, and even though I liked her, she was a bit businesslike when I was talking with her. The second one was very friendly and approachable, but her photos weren't quite as good. This third one seems like a nice mix of friendly/approachable and very skilled (her photos are extremely good, for the most part). If I hadn't had a consultation with her, I probably would have gone with the first one because I did like her, but it just hit me while talking with Dr. Chester that "this is the one." I also really like the fact that she isn't super-commercialized. She doesn't advertise, advertise, advertise, you know? Her website never came up in any of my internet searches, so I wouldn't have known about her if one of her patients hadn't PMed me on MMH. The first one was like that, too, but the second surgeon was pretty commercialized, with a fancy office, expensively-designed webpage, etc. I like that this one apparently doesn't rely on just advertising (or advertising at all, apparently) to bring in customers. You guys are going to be sick of my gushing over the next 5 months. :smile:

She wants me to reach 140 pounds before surgery. That'll put me right at a BMI of 25.

That's really what I'm looking forward to. Well, sort of. With me, it's more wearing a pair of low-cut bikini panties and being able to look down and see them. At this point, I can wear them, but I can't see them, lol. :tongue: BTW, guys, I found the PS that I'm going to use! It took three consults, but I'm really comfortable and happy with her. It looks like I'll be joining you guys in mid-August!

Not yet. When I book, I'll have to give a down payment, so I'm going to wait until much closer to the surgery date that I want to schedule. She said that as long as I gave about a month's notice, I should be able to get the date I want. She's going to be going on vacation this summer for several weeks and doesn't feel comfortable doing my surgery immediately before that and then leaving me, so she wants me to hold off on surgery until the second week of August or so. And honestly, that's fine with me, since that gives me even more time to stabilize my weight and save up some more money.

Speaking as the daughter of a vet, definitely change to a no-dye cat food. I think it was either Friskies or 9Lives, in particular, that used to give my cats red runs all the time, from the dye in the food. Is the vomit solid/semi-solid or is it very liquidy? If it's solid or semi-solid, he/she may just be having a hairball or be eating too much too quickly and accidentally making himself vomit (believe it or not, pretty common with animals). I've also had a cat in the past that would vomit whenever she got stressed. If it's liquidy vomit, there might be something else going on.

Congrats, Wheetsin! :biggrin2: Awesome news! And yes, STUPID doctor. :blushing:

I think it's where some skin is pulled tighter than the skin around it, if that makes sense. Think of it in terms of cloth. If you cut a big hole out of the center of a square of cloth and try to stretch the cloth and sew it together, you'll wind up with raised areas at the ends of the mended spot. That's because there's more cloth at those areas than there is in the area that had the cloth cut out, so it kind of bunches up where it meets the mended area. From what I understand, that's basically what happens with dog ears.

And we have a winner, I think! :blushing: I REALLY liked this surgeon. We just sort of clicked, if that makes sense. She's slightly more expensive than the other two I had consults with, but she includes some lipo with the tummy tuck, and the others didn't. Her price is $13,570 for everything (TT, BL, lipo, medication, pain pump, night in hospital, anesthesia, etc.). She's not super-commercialized, which I really like (that was one thing that made me a tad uncomfortable with surgeon #2). In fact, I wouldn't have even known about her if I hadn't gotten a PM from one of her patients on MMH. Her site never came up in any of my searches. She's supposed to be a top surgeon, too, from what I've been able to find. One thing that really impressed me when I was talking with her is that she showed me some of her so-so results as well as the good ones, and told me why they weren't as good as they could have been. She didn't just pick and choose her best results to advertise, you know? Anyway, she has done a lot of work with bariatric patients and the vast majority of her photos are really, really good. And they were of real people, not just skinny-minnies who just needed two inches of skin removed.

Thanks, Denise! I'm currently plateaued, but I think it's because I had some wine about a week ago and a margarita on Friday. Plus, I've been a little piggy lately, due to stress.

Thanks, guys! I'm pretty nervous because this is my first face-to-face interview. I've never had one before, believe it or not. All of my others have been either through email (for my grad position) or over the phone. I'm majoring in biology, mostly focusing on wildlife in my research and classes.

Update: I have a job interview on Wednesday! It's just for a part-time office assistant position, but it would be extra money coming in!

I have an interview next week! It's just a little part-time job working in an office, but it's a chance at additional employment and some extra money. Wish me luck!

You look AMAZING, Nina! Geeze, this is making me want PS more and more.

Chickie and Jachut, too!

Adding my thoughts to the group's: You are going to look wonderful!

Well, both of the ones that I've seen so far have said that tummy tucks are pretty forgiving, in terms of weight loss, and that someone can lose quite a bit of weight afterwards and still have it look good. Now, of course, that doesn't mean 50 pounds or anything like that, but they said most patients could be about 25-30 pounds from their goal weight when they have the TT and their results would still be fine after losing that. The problem is the boobs. With boobs, both the PS's said that patients need to be fairly close (within 10-20 pounds) to their goal, or they'll probably start sagging again. I've been losing at a pretty steady rate of about 2-3 pounds a week. I'm wanting to have surgery sometime around mid-May to mid-June, at the earliest (maybe as late as December), so if I stay on scedule, I should be fairly close to my goal by then.

Right now, I'm just finishing up my thesis and not taking any classes, so I don't pay tuition. I'm working a day and a half a week, teaching three labs. It wasn't so bad last semester because I was teaching a lecture class in addition to a couple of labs, and we get paid more for lectures (plus I got extra pay because the classes I was teaching were off campus). After this semester, I should have enough done on my thesis that I'll be able to give up my apartment and finish my thesis no matter where I'm living. At the moment, I'm just stuck in an apartment that's costing me almost my entire paycheck (actually, more than, if you factor in rent, utilities, cable, internet, phone, etc.). I'm don't have to have much help from my parents, but I still feel guilty. I'm just really stressed between not making enough money to live on, trying to get this stupid thesis finished, worrying about what I'll do once I graduate (like I said earlier, I'm burning out on teaching), yadda, yadda, yadda.

Our only coffee shop is Starbucks, and they aren't hiring right now. That was the first place I thought of, lol, with my new caffeine addiction. :rolleyes2:

Honestly, I'm getting so burned out with teaching at the moment that I think I'd strangle the kid. :drool: I've thought about it, though, but I'm not sure I could pick up enough hours to make it really worth-while. That's what I'm hoping, right now. I've put in applications with several banks, a bunch of stores, a hotel, a shipping office, etc., hoping to find something. That's not a bad idea. I'll have to look and see if there's a temp agency around here.